By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: February 27, 2012
The wholesome image of yoga took a hit in the past few weeks as a rising star of the discipline came tumbling back to earth. After accusations of sexual impropriety with female students, John Friend, the founder of Anusara, one of the world’s fastest-growing styles, told followers that he was stepping down for an indefinite period of “self-reflection, therapy and personal retreat.”
Mr. Friend preached a gospel of gentle poses mixed with openness aimed at fostering love and happiness. But Elena Brower, a former confidante, has said that insiders knew of his “penchant for women” and his love of “partying and fun.”
Few had any idea about his sexual indiscretions, she added. The apparent hypocrisy has upset many followers.
“Those folks are devastated,” Ms. Brower wrote in The Huffington Post. “They’re understandably disappointed to hear that he cheated on his girlfriends repeatedly” and “lied to so many.”
But this is hardly the first time that yoga’s enlightened facade has been cracked by sexual scandal. Why does yoga produce so many philanderers? And why do the resulting uproars leave so many people shocked and distraught?
One factor is ignorance. Yoga teachers and how-to books seldom mention that the discipline began as a sex cult — an omission that leaves many practitioners open to libidinal surprise.
Hatha yoga — the parent of the styles now practiced around the globe — began as a branch of Tantra. In medieval India, Tantra devotees sought to fuse the male and female aspects of the cosmos into a blissful state of consciousness.
The rites of Tantric cults, while often steeped in symbolism, could also include group and individual sex. One text advised devotees to revere the female sex organ and enjoy vigorous intercourse. Candidates for worship included actresses and prostitutes, as well as the sisters of practitioners.
Hatha originated as a way to speed the Tantric agenda. It used poses, deep breathing and stimulating acts — including intercourse — to hasten rapturous bliss. In time, Tantra and Hatha developed bad reputations. The main charge was that practitioners indulged in sexual debauchery under the pretext of spirituality.
Early in the 20th century, the founders of modern yoga worked hard to remove the Tantric stain. They devised a sanitized discipline that played down the old eroticism for a new emphasis on health and fitness.
B. K. S. Iyengar, the author of “Light on Yoga,” published in 1965, exemplified the change. His book made no mention of Hatha’s Tantric roots and praised the discipline as a panacea that could cure nearly 100 ailments and diseases. And so modern practitioners have embraced a whitewashed simulacrum of Hatha.
But over the decades, many have discovered from personal experience that the practice can fan the sexual flames. Pelvic regions can feel more sensitive and orgasms more intense.
Read the rest here, you perverts.
ROFL. So I should be encouraging the wife with the Bikram Yoga, then?
She does look good in those LULUs.
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At the gym we visit, I’ve yet to see one who doesn’t look good in them…lol…And my wife has been begging me to go to the 9:30 am Sunday yoga class. I might now have to give that some serious consideration!
FYI — the Bikram yoga is the “hot” one. 105 degrees in the room.
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Well that tears it; count Mad Willie out. As much as I respect his abilities, Woodshedder wearing LULU’s and steamin’ it up at 105 degrees is NOT what I need Sunday mornings.
lol Willie…Trust me, I don’t wear LULU… I have told my wife before that if we ever make a class, that I have to be in the FRONT row.
Though I suppose the LULUs are reminiscent of his alter-ego…Porthos!
I highly recommend “supervising” (from the rear – hohoho).
Fact: 95% of women don’t go to the gym to exercise. They go to look good while exercising. Full hair and makeup is mandatory.
Put them all in a room with a good looking male teacher and you have a recipe for it turning into a competition.
Think trashy reality TV ala the Bachelor under the guise of getting physically fit.
Hmmm. There are a handful of women at our gym that definitely fit that profile. However, most don’t. There is one woman in particular that wears the tightest thin spandex…and does 200lb squats…right in front of the bench press area…where I tend to frequent. It is very distracting.
Those types are always a curiosity.
Why would people be disillusioned with a style of yoga because the guy cheated on his girlfriend? Does that influence the style? People are so shallow, do what’s trendy till it’s not.
Best college girl friend was an instructor. Let me say, Yoga is best practiced for long periods of time. But beware of later, eventual?, “private” yoga invites. Can be harsh on monogamy.
Also, Huffington slam on this is total trash-scandalous talk. Women do such wrongs of deceit and never get similar censure. They call it romance!
Double standard? Hello.
“. In 1995, sex between students and teachers became so prevalent that the California Yoga Teachers Association deplored it as immoral and called for high standards.
“We wrote the code,” Judith Lasater, the group’s president, told a reporter, “because there were so many violations going on.”
”
Wait a second. I’m not here to condone or promote loose sexual adventures (which I personally do not engage in), but in what way can sex between a yoga teacher and a yoga student be called a “violation?” I violation of what? The two adult people want to have sex with each other and do it. Who got violated? And the article mentions yoga’s roots as a sexual cult, so it certainly can’t be claimed that it’s a violation of some kind of yoga code of ethics. It’s actually a fulfillment of yoga’s mission.
In general, sex between teachers and students is taboo due to the inherent imbalance of power and asymmetrical influence of the teacher. Surely, not all instances of sex between yoga teachers and students results from these factors. Just like public education, there are undoubtedly students and teachers who fall madly and genuinely in love with each other, regardless of the status and perceived influence of the teacher.
Still, the relationship between teacher and student, not unlike that of priest and parishioner, is held as sacred and is therefore removed from the rules which govern the normal vagaries of human sexual attraction.
This condition, that a teacher-student relationship is absolutely not tainted by the influences of sexual attraction, is profound. Without it, true growth, learning, reflection, self-study, etc. is not possible and will be limited. The growth of the student and the honest evaluation of the teacher will be checked, lest it get in the way of getting some leg.